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“Another Saturday Night”

Sam Cooke was a marvel. He had one of the best voices in music history–smooth as silk with just enough smokey rasp to give it some personality. It almost doesn’t matter what the song was; he’d make it sound good. I’m of the opinion that Cooke could’ve sung names out of the phone book and it would’ve made the Top 40.

There’s a smile in his voice as he sings this lonesome classic, as if he knew he wasn’t going to spend too many more Saturday nights alone. It’s not quite a teenage lament; the guy in the song is young, but a working man, who just wants to go out with a pretty girl and party now that “I got some money ’cause I just got paid.” He’s cocky in spite of the fact that he’s alone. He knows he could get a girl if he could just meet one he liked. He doesn’t seem to be looking to hook up, he just seems to want “some chick to talk to.” There’s an innocence to this song that I don’t think you find anymore in music. This guy might be single and ready to mingle, but he’s a gentleman to the core. He’s even seen some pretty girls in his new town, “If I could meet ’em I could get ’em, but as yet I haven’t met ’em. That’s why I’m in the shape I’m in.” I’m not sure why he doesn’t just introduce himself, but it was a different time.

Sam Cooke himself didn’t seem to have any trouble landing women, but women did surround his controversial death. He was shot in a motel lobby by the manager, who claimed that Cooke tried to attack her and she shot him in self-defense. Cooke, who was wearing only a sport jacket and shoes at the time, had been accused of kidnapping and attempted rape by the woman he was at the motel with. While there are still some unanswered questions, the motel manager was never charged and the shooting was deemed justifiable homicide. I don’t know what the whole truth is, but I’m inclined to think that Cooke was probably at fault. Some of his supporters tried to claim there was a conspiracy to murder the singer, but there is no documented reason or evidence to support these theories. Does his pathetic death detract from his music? Not for me.